Friday, October 04, 2013

Now then, now, then

Now and then one hears from people who want to live in the now. This is all very perplexing, not simply because it seems odd that these people should want to be living in "the now" rather than in "the present", but also because, now and then, one wonders why they want to live in the now rather than in the then, or now and then in the now-then, or even now and then in the soon.

Often, one is tempted to further speculations: if it is possible to live in the now, what about living in the soon-to-be-now, or the just-after-now? Can one perhaps contrive to live in the day after the now, or two and three quarter seconds before the now, or even on the now or above the now or through the now? Is it perhaps getting a bit too crowded, now, there in the now, with all these people wanting to live in the now and none of them wanting to live before the now or after the now? What's so good about the now anyway, whatever it is and whenever that whatever it is, is (or was)?

Indeed so many people have been living for so long in the now that I wonder if they're not getting sick of the now right about, ahem, now. After living in the now, then, and the now, now, why don't they give it a switch and try living in the then, now, and the soon, then?

And every now and then one might be tempted to quote that famous poem:

Every now and then I get a little bit lonely and you're never coming round, Turn around.

Such deep words. Such deep, mysterious words that speak to the very core of our being.